Effect of calcium chloride treatment on the water deficit stress, growth performance, anatomy, biochemical profile and protein expression in the green leafy vegetable crop Sesbania grandiflora
摘要
Water is essential component for plant growth, and water deficit is a significant stress factor affecting all agricultural crops, including the Indian green leafy vegetable Sesbania grandiflora L. Previous studies have shown that calcium chloride (CaCl2) treatment through irrigation can alleviate water deficit stress in various plants; however, this has not been investigated in S. grandiflora. So, the main objective of this project is to study the effect of calcium chloride irrigation treatment on the on morphology, anatomy, biochemistry and molecular regulation water deficit stress exposed S. grandiflora plants. The results indicated that plants exposed to water deficit stress experienced significant decreases in several traits compared to the control group: the number of leaves per plant (1.00–14.00 vs. 1.00-58.50), leaf size (0.92 × 0.32 cm vs. 1.64 × 0.55 cm), root length (3.20 cm vs. 4.65 cm), soluble protein content (6.86 mg/g leaf vs. 7.62 mg/g leaf) and chlorophyll content (0.40–1.08 mg/g leaf vs. 0.61–2.14 mg/g leaf). In contrast, calcium chloride treatment led to improvements in various morphological characteristics, such as increased stem height (4.17–11.35 cm), an increased number of leaves (1.19–73.17), enhanced root length (4.25 cm), higher soluble sugar content (21.47 mg/g leaf), and elevated superoxide generation (2.12 arbitrary units). Additionally, anatomical features were positively affected in S. grandiflora plants treated with CaCl2. These findings suggest that S. grandiflora is sensitive to water deficit stress and that CaCl2 is effective in mitigating this stress. Therefore, farmers could consider utilizing CaCl2 treatment for cultivating S. grandiflora under water deficit conditions, provided that an optimal dosage is determined and large-scale field trials are conducted.